| Enchufismo 🇪🇸 | ||
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| Location: Spain | ||
| Definition: Nepotism, granting opportunities and favours to the near and dear; use of personal connections | ||
| Keywords: Spain – Europe – EU – Nepotism – Favour – Influence – Mutual help – Instrumentality of sociability | ||
| Clusters: Solidarity – Economies of favours – Amoral familism – Community lock-in | ||
| Author: Ignacio Fradejas Garcia | ||
| Affiliation: School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland | ||
By Ignacio Fradejas Garcia, School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland
| Enchufismo is the practice of granting positions, jobs, assignments, recommendations, resources or benefits through kinship, friendship or political relations, regardless of the merits of the candidates. The term is commonly used in Spain to capture the use of personal networks to overcome constraints in numerous contexts. The term derives from the verb enchufar that literally means to plug-in, and is synonymous with the verb conectar, to connect. The image below highlights the metaphor of connectivity to someone who has enchufe, a socket, in order to get access to a good position, usually through family or close friendship or their networks. |
The term enchufismo has an advantage of a powerful metaphor while being semantically close to other pejorative terms such as nepotism, favoritism and amiguismo (Muñoz 2011). There are many metaphorical terms in Latin America with similar meaning. To have palanca, or lever, in Cuba, El Salvador or Dominican Republic refers to the ability or influence to obtain something (RAE 2020c). To have muñeca, or wrist, implies support by an influential person in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru or Uruguay (RAE 2020b). Enchufismo is also similar to cronyism and nepotist practices, such as the Chilean pituto, the Italian raccomandazione, 'pulling the strings' in Anglo-Saxon settings, or avea o pilă practices in Romania (Fradejas-García, Molina, and Lubbers 2022). The term is perhaps more general as it combines both family and friendship, as well as embraces both personal and professional contexts. A recent survey on business perceptions shows that the practices of favouring friends and/or family members in public institutions in Spain is the second highest in the EU (54%) only behind Portugal (59%) and significantly different from the EU average (42%) (Eurobarometer 2019).
The origin of the term enchufe is hard to establish but there are references in the newspapers archives in the 1910s (e.g., La Vanguardia 1915). It was already used during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923-1930, who fostered the practice in order to establish good working positions with people who had kin relationships with the regime elites (García 1980). Then, the term became popular during the Second Spanish Republic in 1931-1939, when the opponents of the Republic initiated a “enchufes campaign” to discredit the government. They used the term enchufismo to characterize the case of the deputies who took advantage of their political influence to obtain prestigious positions and resources (Garcia, 1980: 52-57). Anthropologists working in Spain have directly linked enchufismo practices with politics, where nepotism, patronage systems and other forms of political corruption abound. During the Franco’s dictatorship in 1939-1975, such practices became crucial for circumventing the all kind of bureaucratic obstacles to get things done (Eisenstadt and Roniger 1984; Kenny 1960; Pitt Rivers 1954). Local practices of enchufismo embrace both clientelist behaviour at the grassroots level (Campbell 2021) and patronal influence in local administrations for granting jobs and resources to friends, families and political allies.
According to the dictionary (RAE 2020a), the colloquial and derogatory terms related to enchufismo – enchufar, enchufe, enchufista, enchufado/a – tend to emphasize political influence and/or corruption. However, enchufismo-based problem solving is also widespread in spheres beyond politics and state administration, such as the education system or the private job market. Indeed, the term has spanned to mean any social connection to get positions, resources and sinecura jobs that are almost free of duty.
On the one hand, the idea of using contacts to enter and/or secure a position within an organisation is embedded in the local culture. On the other hand, even when it is clear someone powerful has “supposedly” granted a job, it is not openly recognized. Political influence, kin/friend recommendation or direct help are an open secret, referred to by euphemisms reflecting the power of the connection: ‘to be hand-picked’ (dedo or dedazo), and/or ‘to have a three-phase electricity’ (trifásico) that generates, transfers and distributes power.
Enchufismo is a common practice on the Spanish labour market. Although the principle of meritocracy is frequently invoked, it is rarely implemented, so the informal networks become the most effective path to getting a job. A 2016 survey shows that 41% of the employed young people (16-34 years old) had obtained their positions through the family, friends or acquaintances (INE 2016). Thus, the merit is always in doubt. To claim meritocracy for an individual, or an organisation, is to put a fight against enchufismo or amigocracy (Kenny 1960). It is not necessary to have a connection with someone in a very powerful position, it is often enough to know someone who can mediate the situation or broker a deal. Enchufismo can be related to having powerful parents, a godfather (see also padrino system), or a friend, but it can also be just a recommendation, or a privilege gained on a predilection. Thus, the enchufe might be done by an intermediary who is neither close nor connected directly with the beneficiary. Correspondingly, the beneficiary might not need to repay the favour, the fact of belonging to a certain network entitles one to a favour. In most cases, it is just a favour without an obligation to repay, a part and parcel of an extended network of close ties. For example, having a friend who knows someone from the managerial staff of a company or institution is a way of having your CV on top of the pile.
Although enchufe does not entail a direct reciprocity of the favour or return of the debt, a request for support may occur later. Such requests are rarely symmetrical and may involve the so-called long reciprocity cycle, whereby with time the initial enchufado will gain power to enchufar someone else in the future. It is accepted that enchufismo is something negative and pejorative, a practice that everyone has suffered from at some point, and usually reinforces privileged networks and thus structural inequalities. However, it can also be advantageous. Although it might not look good, enchufismo is morally accepted when close ties are mobilized to secure a livelihood in precarious situations, which many people encounter in Spain nowadays.
References
Campbell, B. 2021. ‘Pax Regis: Patronage, Charisma, and Ethno-Religious Coexistence in a Spanish Enclave in North Africa’. Focaal 1–16. doi: 10.3167/fcl.2021.011102.
Eisenstadt, S. N., & Roniger, L. 1984. Patrons, Clients and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eurobarometer. 2019. Business Attitudes towards Corruption in the EU. Flash Eurobarometer 482. European Commission.
Fradejas-García, I., Molina,J.L. & Lubbers, M.J. 2022. ‘(Im)Mobilities and Informality as Livelihood Strategies in Transnational Social Fields’. In Polese, A. (ed.), Informality, Labour Mobility and Precariousness: Supplementing the State for the Invisible and the Vulnerable. Cham: Palgrave: 33-67
García, J.F. 1980. Léxico y Política de La Segunda Republica. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca.
INE. 2016. ‘Módulo Año 2016 (Base Censos 2011). Los Jóvenes En El Mercado Laboral.’
Kenny, M. 1960. ‘Patterns of Partonage in Spain’. Anthropological Quarterly, 14–23.
Muñoz, L. 2011. ‘Aspectos de La Recepción Del Léxico En -Ismo e -Ista En La Lexicografía Académica Española y En La Hispanoamericana: Las Actitudes En Los Siglos XVIII, XIX, y XX’. Cuadernos Del Instituto de Historia de La Lengua, 45–72.
La Vanguardia. 1915. http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1914/04/27/pagina-7/33338080/pdf.html?search=enchufismo
Pitt Rivers, J. A. 1954. The People of the Sierra. New York: Criterion book.
RAE. 2020a. ‘Enchufismo’. Real Diccionario de La Lengua Española.
RAE. 2020b. ‘Muñeco, Ca’. Real Diccionario de La Lengua Española.